The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Paamul to Chetumal

This is the second blog post for today... in case you missed it, you can visit the first one here...

Our visit to Xcaret

We had arrived back at Paamul RV Park at about 10:00pm Thursday night, and we had an 8:00am Friday morning start for our scheduled travel day to Chetumal. So there simply wasn't time to sort through the days photos and write a long blog post.


The day didn't get off to a smooth start. We wanted to meet outside on the main road at 8:00am. That meant that we could each leave the RV park individually, but when the first ones made the effort, the security guard would not open the gate because we didn't have an "exit pass". Long story short, the office girl at Paamul had forgotten to give them to us, and we had no idea that we needed one. Obviously this is their way of making sure that nobody skips out without paying. And when the price is 950 pesos per night, I'm sure that some have tried!

Anyhow, we had to wait until the office opens at 8:00am, and of course that turned out to be 8:10am. But, the girl apologized profusely, and we were soon on our way.

Yesterday's drive, 308 kms (191 miles).

We made our way south, and once we were past the busy town of Tulum I joked that we were now back in Mexico. Of course that whole Cancun to Tulum corridor is in fact part of Mexico... but it's not an area we would return to on our own.

Driving through Tulum.

One town we passed had a lot of pineapples for sale.

Overall, a boring drive to Chetumal. Not much to see from the road, but it was in decent condition..

We did not take the toll bypass around Felipe Carillo, instead deciding to go through town to do a fuel stop. But the first station looked under repair, although it was open. I knew there was another station on the other side of town, so we continued through. There was a station in town, but it was busy and too small for us anyhow. We stopped at the third station, only to find that they were doing electrical line work opposite the station and so the pumps were not operational.

We continued on to a small station just past the 293 road. We all fueled up there, but it was another Pemex undergoing conversion to a FullGas station and they would not accept any credit cards.

Made our way through the commercial area of Chetumal without issue. Arrived at Yax-Ha Trailer Park. We stayed in Calderitas at a friend's place for nine nights back in 2009, so we know the area fairly well, and surprisingly it hasn't changed much.

The trailer park is really nice, but it took some time to get everybody off the main road and parked up. Once again, the bigger rigs are difficult to maneuver, but we made it work. It would be sooo much easier if everybody was under 30 ft long!

Some of our group.

Most sites have shade and many have a water view.

More of our group.

Hey, there's Sherman!
GPS 18.561105, -88.249042

The sea. 

There is no beach but there is a beautiful pool.

Yes, there was a big earthquake again in Mexico yesterday. But it was centered quite far from here in between Oaxaca City and the Pacific coast and we didn't feel a thing.

We've got two days off to relax! Supposed to be nice today with a high of 29C (84F) but there is some rain in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

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16 comments:

  1. Great Park. Hope the sani dump is not backed up like it was in Fall due to the rain. BTW check out the road after the first right hand turn when you exit. Low trees, you may have to use that class B to go block the other side and use the wrong side for a block for the larger rigs, unless they have trimmed them.

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    Replies
    1. We hope that the sani dump will be fine too!

      We read your notes in the road log and will have a look at the road while we are here, thanks.

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  2. It didn't look like Mexico City had that much damage, thank goodness. Finally they seem to be getting their earthquake codes in order since they have so many. We've always avoided Zelha for the same reasons you did but it does look nice, not worth the money in my opinion but then again I will shell out for certain tours that are about the same money.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From what we have heard it seems that the buildings swayed but nothing more than that.

      We don't know what Xel-Ha is like or how it would compare to Xcaret but we have to admit that the evening show alone was almost worth the admission price, it was definitely classed right up there with any Las Vegas show in our opinion.

      We agree, we are pretty picky with the way we spend our money and even thought that a day snorkeling with turtles and then in a real underground cenote along with a lunch which we have done before would also be worth the same amount of money. Having now done the Xcaret experience, we can certainly see the attraction, even though it is a pretty touristy thing to do.

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  3. What a pretty spot! Enjoy the relaxation.

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    Replies
    1. We will, this bets Paamul any day! Everyone loves it here. :-)

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  4. Probably our favorite RV park in all of Mexico although probably not quite as much fun since our mutual friend Kathe has sold her place down the beach and moved to the USA. I love the waterfront site and we have been lucky enough to secure one of them every time we have been there. There are some great seafood restaurants downtown and good quality hammocks are available downtown. Kathe got us into the prison where the best hammocks are available at the best prices.

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    1. We are really enjoying it here, everybody loves it! :-)

      Yes, we are missing not being able to see Kathe and her place. We loved our time there 9 years ago.

      I think just about everyone has gotten a hammock. We had a gas stop near Valladolid and it was right beside a prison as well, where they made hammocks and sold them too, so I think a few people picked some up then but thanks for the heads up.

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  5. Replies
    1. It is a beautiful campground and the view is wonderful. :-)

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  6. I like seeing the roads you all travel and the produce stands along the way. You have bed. Staying at some great places!

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    1. Glad that you are enjoying the posts from Mexico and all the various locations that we have been staying at. This is definitely a beautiful one and a wonderful location. A great place to relax at.

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  7. Beautiful pics and such a lovely spot.

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  8. You guys must have been tired after yesterday! At least you didn't have to drive TOO far today (it looks shorter than 191 on the map, haha). I love the palm trees in the park, very pretty.

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    1. We were but we had to drive so you just suck it up and do it. We will make sure in the future, if we decide to do the caravan again that this outing will not be done the day before we have a travel day.

      Although is doesn't sound like far to drive with a group of 12 rigs, it took us 6 hours to get to our destination so for us this is a long day. Normally we like 4 hour drive days but that isn't always possible in Mexico.

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